Unemployment

ECONOMIC WEEK AHEAD: June 2 - 6

Jun 1, 2025 3 min read

There's no question that President Donald Trump is stress testing the resilience of the economy with what we've been (objectively) calling Trump's Tariff Turmoil (TTT). The latest developments on Friday: Trump declared that China is violating terms agreed upon in its trade deal with the US, and he raised the tariff on aluminum and steel from 25% to 50%. Nevertheless, the resilience of the

Ed Yardeni
William Pesek

FOMC Day Minus One: Waiting For Nothing

May 6, 2025 3 min read paid

The federal funds rate (FFR) futures market has consistently been predicting several cuts in the FFR since March 2023 (chart). The Fed did deliver three rate cuts totaling 100bps from September 18 through December 18, 2024. Since then, Fed officials have said that they are in no hurry to lower the FFR again. Nevertheless, the FFR futures market is currently anticipating two rate cuts over the next six months and

Ed Yardeni

Is The Economy On The Edge?

May 1, 2025 3 min read

The good news is that the Magnificent-7 are still magnificent. Three of them (Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft) beat earnings expectations for Q1. We've been arguing that while AI may or may not make money for the providers of Large Language Models, the result will be more demand for cloud computing. That should be good news for at least four of the Mag-7. The bad news is that recent

Ed Yardeni

Strongest Buy Signal Ever?

Apr 24, 2025 3 min read paid

On Sunday (April 20), we observed that The Economist had just featured three consecutive very bearish cover stories suggesting that the dollar might be on the verge of collapse and that so might the US stock and bond markets along with the US economy. Make that four consecutive bearish cover stories, with this week's magazine showing an eagle battered by Trump's first 100 days (image). We

Ed Yardeni

Bond Vigilantes Remain Unhappy

Apr 10, 2025 3 min read

It was not a happy day in the bond market. Neither was it a happy day in the stock market: Bond Market. The 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.45% this evening, up from a recent low of 4.01% on April 4, two days after Liberation Day. Yesterday, President Donald Trump partially postponed Liberation Day because the bond market was "tricky." It remained tricky today. Yields

Ed Yardeni

US Economy Is Still Resilient, But Tariffs Pose Risks

Mar 20, 2025 3 min read

Today's batch of economic data releases was positive on balance but also suggests that Trump Tariff Turmoil 2.0 could dampen future growth. Stock prices seesawed between gains and losses, while Treasury yields slid a bit. Markets continue to suggest that economic growth outside of the US is increasingly likely to improve while downside risks to US growth are rising. As a result, US stock valuation multiples are

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

Layoffs Rising According To Challenger Report. Is That Alarming?

Mar 6, 2025 2 min read paid

We raised the odds of a recession on March 4 from 20% to 35%. Today's Challenger Report showed an alarming jump in February's announced job layoffs to 172,017, the highest since July 2020 (chart). On the other hand, initial unemployment claims remained low through the February 28 week. So we aren't raising our odds of a recession again, for now. A third of

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

Another Growth Scare

Feb 27, 2025 3 min read

The stock market is in the midst of another growth scare, in our opinion. The latest batch of economic indicators has been weak. The current growth scare is reminiscent of last summer's scare. It is just as likely to pass if the next batch of economic indicators improves, as we expect. That still leaves policy uncertainty under Trump 2.0 to spook stock investors. We still expect that

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

Hitting a Wal(mart)

Feb 20, 2025 3 min read paid

Disappointing forward guidance from Walmart weighed on the stock market today. The company's shares fell 6.5% today despite a very strong Q4, mostly because the company's 2025 earnings expectations fell short of analysts' estimates. Part of the worry came from comments on the possible negative impact of tariffs. Management’s guidance also reflected negative currency impacts and a hit from acquisitions. On balance, the

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

Fed's Dovish Pause Boosts Stocks, Gold, And Bitcoin

Jan 30, 2025 3 min read paid

Fed Chair Jerome Powell's basic message during his press conference yesterday was that the Fed is in no hurry to lower interest rates, but the Fed still intends to lower them over time. So it's a dovish pause. That boosted stock, gold, and bitcoin prices today. Meanwhile, Investors Intelligence Bull/Bear Ratio remained relatively low this past week. It was released yesterday morning before Powell'

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

Take Down These Interest Rates And Oil Prices Too!

Jan 23, 2025 3 min read

President Donald Trump invoked his inner President Ronald Reagan today in a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But his asks amounted to a taller order than just "tear down this wall." During his address, Trump demanded lower interest rates (not just in the US, but globally), called on OPEC to lower oil prices, and urged that the Russia-Ukraine war must end as soon

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

The Bond Vigilantes Are Fighting The Fed

Dec 12, 2024 3 min read paid

After today's PPI, we won't be surprised if Fed officials plant a story in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend titled something like "Fed Officials Might Vote To Pause Rate Cutting Following Hot Inflation Data." The current consensus seems to be that the Fed will cut the federal funds rate (FFR) by 25bps on December 18. But it might be a "hawkish

Ed Yardeni
Eric Wallerstein

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